Active in communities

We’re working to build deeper relationships with the communities we’re part of. Whether it’s promoting social mobility, encouraging employee volunteering or supporting local causes, we always try to make a positive difference to the people around us.

Why it matters

As a business, we don’t exist in isolation - we’re an integral part of every local community we’re based in. The best businesses help the people who live and work around them to thrive – supporting them at difficult moments, getting involved to support the issues they care most about and offering to share skills and resources.

How we're supporting communities

Our approach

We want to strengthen our relationships with the communities we work in. Our Community Investment policy governs the ways we support community organisations, from contributing time and skills to providing one-off donations and establishing long-term partnerships.

Much of our community activity is defined by the needs we see on the ground in the areas we work in, and is organised by local teams. We focus RSA’s contributions on developing education & employability, enhancing social inclusion, contributing to emergency relief and protecting the environment. We also develop partnerships that help to support us to ‘Shape a smarter tomorrow’ by raising awareness and improving mitigation of risks.

Every RSA colleague has the opportunity to take two days of volunteering time per year, in support of causes of their own choosing. During 2018, we collectively donated over 8,000 hours to causes we care about.

 

  2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
Payments to charities £1,205,100 £1,423,400 £1,315,900 £1,282,300 £1,141,500
Employee fundraising £285,300 £265,900 £158,300 £222,800 £225,800
Volunteering time £192,500 £197,500 £141,700 £156,700 £193,300
Gifts in kind £112,800 £6,800 £105,900    
Total community investment £1,795,700 £1,893,600 £1,717,300 £1,661,800 £1,560,600
Volunteering hours 8,193 8,959 6,081 7,158 6,691

Our partnership with School for Social Entrepreneurs

We have been working closely with School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) for the last five years; and our long-term relationship has been an integral part of delivering our corporate responsibility strategy Making things better, together in both the UK and our Canadian operations.

Through our partnership, we have supported the development of many passionate and driven individuals who tackle pressing social and environmental challenges head on. SSE’s programme of activities enables entrepreneurs to hone the skills all leaders need – and it’s given our leaders the chance to learn from them too!

We have demonstrated what can be achieved when business and the third sector work together to share skills, expertise and a passion to make a difference. You can read more about our partnership in our new impact report Celebrating five years of creating social impact (PDF).